Passengers face summer holiday travel disruption after the Steam Packet announced some sailings into August have been cancelled.

It’s due to the Manxman being in extended dry dock.

Passengers booked on the morning Manxman sailing to Heysham on Monday August 3 and August 10 have been notified that the service has been cancelled, as have the return afternoon sailings from the Lancashire port.

There are no fastcraft sailings to Liverpool on those days either, available for online booking. Manannan sailings to Liverpool on Wednesday August 5 have also been cancelled.

It’s meant passengers having to transfer on to a sailing on another day or in some cases book a flight instead to avoid cutting short their holiday.

Asked when the Manxman is expected to leave dry dock, a Steam Packet spokesperson said: ‘We do not have a confirmed date as yet, a further update will be issued in due course.’

The Steam Packet announced on Wednesday that the Manxman will remain in dry dock beyond its planned return to service for further essential repairs.

It said that during scheduled maintenance and inspections, additional repairs were identified which will require more time to complete before Manxman can return to service.

The vessel had been due to return on the Heysham route this week.

In the meantime, Ben-my-Chree has been covering the Heysham route while Manxman is out of service.

But with the Ben now also covering the Larne route, it’s meant there will be no morning Heysham service on three days next week.

There are no sailings to either Heysham or Liverpool on Friday July 31 - and no seats available on the Ben on Saturday August 1.

The company said it is reviewing its operational plans in an effort to minimise disruption and will continue to keep customers informed of any changes to scheduled sailings.

Steam Packet managing director Brian Thomson said: ‘We recognise this news will be frustrating for many of our customers and we apologise for the inconvenience caused.

Passengers booked on Douglas to Larne sailing on August 3 have been told the 9.30am departure has been brought forward to 7.30am for operational reasons.

The recently refurbished Ben has suffered technical problems of its own over the past week.

It suffered a generator fault last Sunday, forcing the cancellation of the scheduled 8.30am sailing from Douglas to Heysham and the 2.15pm return crossing.

Further disruption followed on Tuesday when the company cancelled the 7.45pm sailing from Douglas to Heysham, along with the scheduled 2.15am return journey to the island, again due to a technical issue.

It has not been confirmed whether Tuesday's fault was connected to Sunday's generator problem.